Archbishop Karol Wojtyla receives the cardinal’s red biretta from Pope Paul VI at the beginning of the consistory in the Sistine Chapel June 26, 1967. The future Pope John Paul II had a warm relationship with Pope Paul VI (Giovanni Battista Montini), who served as a priest in Warsaw in 1923. (CNS file photo)  ...read more

Pope John Paul II holds his crosier as he prays during Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican in this undated photo. (CNS photo/Catholic Press Photo) ...read more

On Palm Sunday, April 13, 2014, in an unscripted, extremely moving, Ignatian-style homily, Pope Francis invited the crowd of over 100,000 people to enter into today’s passion story from Matthew’s Gospel and ask some very personal questions of our own roles in the Gospel story. Here is the Vatican’s official English translation: CELEBRATION OF PALM ...read more

Pope John Paul II waves to young pilgrims during World Youth Day in Toronto July 25, 2002. (CNS photo/Arturo Mari)  ...read more

Pope John Paul II (center, in red boots) prays with a group of skiers before heading down a slope in this 1984 file photo. The pontiff, who enjoyed skiing in his native Poland before his election, was able to slip away to ski only a few times as he led the worldwide church. (CNS photo ...read more

Pope John Paul II kisses a rain-soaked tarmac as he arrives in Jakarta, Indonesia, on a pastoral trip in 1989. (CNS file photo)  ...read more

Pope John Paul II delivers his “urbi et orbi” (to the city of Rome and the world) message on Easter in 1993. (CNS photo from L’Osservatore Romano) ...read more

Pope John Paul II addresses the General Assembly at the United Nations in New York Oct. 2, 1979. (CNS file photo) ...read more

Pope John Paul II greets Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in this photo dated Oct. 22, 1978. Twenty-seven years later, this photo captured by a L’Osservatore Romano photographer would take on special significance with Cardinal Ratzinger’s election as Pope Benedict XVI. (CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano) ...read more

U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy greets Pope John Paul II, as Rosalyn Carter, wife U.S. President Jimmy Carter, looks on, during the pope’s arrival in Boston in 1979. (CNS file photo)  ...read more